Daily Sitka Sentinel

School Board Begins a Search

By TOM HESSE

Sentinel Staff Writer

School started today and the Sitka School Board started the year looking for a new member. 

Lon Garrison, who had previously announced his intention to resign, submitted his formal letter of resignation Wednesday night during the board’s first meeting of the school year.

Garrison, who plans to move to Juneau and work for the Association of Alaska School Boards, said his resignation will be effective Sept. 1.

Under the city charter, the board has until Oct. 1 to appoint his replacement.

Garrison’s resignation comes too late for the opening to be filled in the Oct. 6 city election, in which five candidates, including the two incumbents, will contend for two three-years terms on the board.

The district plans to advertise for applicants for the one-year appointment, and a special meeting is scheduled for Sept. 21 to interview candidates and make the selection. The interviews will be conducted in public, but board members said candidates have the option to have their merits discussed in executive session. 

“They have that option but normally the fallback position is open session,” board member Tom Conley said. 

Conley was on the board during the last vacancy appointment in 1998. 

Letters of interest in the opening need to be submitted to the School District by Sept. 18. To qualify for consideration, applicants must be registered to vote in Alaska; be 18 or older; a U.S. citizen; and have been a resident of Sitka for at least 30 days and not disqualified from voting.

The appointed term will expire in October 2016. Garrison has been on the board since 2008 and has most recently served as board president. 

Community Schools

The future of the Community Schools program is high on the list of issues the board will deal with this year. The spring’s budget crunch led to significant cutbacks in Community Schools support, and officials from the city and the school district have been working to make the after-school programs more independent of district funding.

A request for proposals issued earlier this year yielded no responses, and the current Community Schools structure is funded only till the end of September. Because of that, Superintendent Mary Wegner said the district is not accepting reservations for building uses until the future of the program is decided. 

“We are not accepting any reservations beyond September 30 until we have a clear picture,” Wegner said. 

But she said not to worry about the program. Now that the RFP has been issued, the district may instead negotiate with interested parties freely. There’s been outside interest and she thinks a solution will be found, she said. 

“I feel confident that we can come up with a good Plan B,” she said, adding that she expects a proposal to come before the board in September. 

School Enrollment

In her administrative report, Wegner also informed the board that the early student count is about four students shy of the number the district has budgeted for. 

Student enrollment is important because districts receive state funding based on a per-pupil funding formula. The district was planning for 1,305 students and right now it has 1,301.5. The count is taken through September and October, and the numbers typically fluctuate early in the year. 

“We are still getting some enrollments in, but we’re going to be right in line with our projection,” Wegner told the board. 

The biggest change was the loss of nine projected kindergarten students. Wegner said all nine left the state with their families. On the bright side, she said, the change does improve the teacher-to-student ratio in kindergarten. 

With the loss of three teaching positions since last year, kindergarten class sizes were expected to increase. Now they will hover around 18-19, Wegner said, and an additional teacher has been moved to the fourth grade level to help with large class sizes there. 

Other Business

The School Board gave unanimous approval on second reading to a teacher evaluation plan. The new teaching evaluation system is a state mandate and goes into effect this year.

Additionally the board voted to sign a letter of support for the 21st Century Learning Grant. Sitka receives money through the grant, but it is in danger of being cut during the next budget process in Congress, the board was told.

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